Today, I was out on my bicycle, combining my morning workout with exploring parts of our district that I had not visited before. My journey took me up an unpaved road that turned into a field road that petered out on a hillside garden.
As I was coming back, I decided to check out some of the side streets of the nearby village. As I was rounding one corner, I noticed a group of people standing around in one of the yards.
“Are you lost?” they asked.
I told them that I was not lost but I was new to the area and I was exploring. What I wanted to say, but I did not know how to say in Thai, is that you can’t get lost if you don’t have a destination. Instead, it is more like how the old saying puts it, “wherever you go, there you are.”
While this kind of attitude is great for exploring, it is not very helpful for most things in life, whether it be working or writing or doing a project around the house. And I must confess that I do struggle in this area—I’m a better starter than a finisher.
I know I’ve listened to sermons that were put together by someone who did not have a goal. After a while the listening gets tiring and I check out. “Where is he going?” I’ll as myself. Sometimes the speaker will get me by surprise and actually reach a destination. At other times I’ll notice that the speaker himself did not seem to have a goal. I find myself looking to be fed but coming up empty.
The destination is important.
I see the importance of having a goal these days in continuing my Thai studies. When we were in language school, there was always a goal—usually marked by the completion of a workbook and a test of some sort. Now the struggle is to find a goal that is reasonable, in the light of ministry commitments, and then to work towards that goal. Without such a goal, it is hard to stay motivated to study.
Our life also needs a goal. While I don’t underestimate the value of the journey itself—our life is all about that journey—it should be a journey to someplace.
Paul noted the importance of a life goal.
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.Philippians 3:10-14
Paul’s goal was to know Jesus and be like Him. He notes that this is not an easy goal to attain, but that it was worth straining forward for and pressing on towards.
It is interesting to note that Paul’s goal was not to win X number of people to Jesus—though he spent his life trying reach those who had not yet heard about Jesus. In fact, in Acts 9:15 we read that Jesus gave him a clear call to do this very thing. Yet even though his life was consumed with bringing the good news to the non-Jewish world, his actual goal was to know and be like Jesus.
Reaching people for Jesus was his task.
Being like Jesus was his goal.
I admit that my pursuit of this kind of goal often seems to lack the ardor and zeal that marked Paul’s life. It is easy to get distracted with other things—even good things.
We read a story about this kind of thing in Luke 10:38-42 (NIV):
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
Martha missed out on the "better" part because she let the task (serving Jesus) distract her from what should have been her goal (knowing Jesus). Both the task and the goal are important—but if we lose sight of the goal, the task has no value, and we get lost.
God, help me to fix my eyes on that which is better—that which is most important.
No comments:
Post a Comment